A review by Judith Stansfield, SENIT ICT Consultant.

     • Subject: SENIT New progs for basic ICT skills
     • From: "Judith Stansfield" <stass@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
     • Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 11:46:36 +0100

Through some community work I am involved with I have been made aware of a new product that could be useful in school - especially if your ICT facilities are used for community learning.

It comes in 2 versions - First Steps XP for XP systems and Quick Start for older operating systems.

It starts as a very basic intro to getting going on computers and introduces the language and basic IT skills that will take a complete (and scared) beginner from turning the machine on, closing it down to finding out how to use a mouse, menus etc, organising the desktop, accessing the internet and upgrading the computer. There is a helpful glossary available and certificates can be printed out for each unit.

There is a natural progression, but it is possible to skip a unit or do them in a different order. Real speech support is available for all the on-screen text and a large print version for those with visual differences. In the autumn there will be a dual language version, so that English screen text is backed with Urdu(or another language) or vice versa - this will be a very motivating way of combining the development of ICT and language skills, either in ESOL or MFL contexts.

The front end can be designed to reflect the school or community ownership and several learning centres and charities are using it now.

The site licence for any number of users and to include updates is now £1250+VAT.

For further details contact John Snowden at john@220soft.co.uk
Cheers
Judith
PS I have no commercial interest in these products
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Judith Stansfield
SEN ICT Consultant
NASEN ICT Group
BDACC Reviews and Literature Editor
NAACE SEN Reference Point